Translated by Margaret Benton Fukasawa, in her book “Kitahara Hakushu, His Life and Poetry”

This is part of poems by Kitahara Hakushu, gifted Japanese poet. It is hardly surprising that a rose blooms on a rose bush, but a wonder of nature itself must have inspired him to write the verse. I deeply feel empathy with this poem.

We tend to relish trivial things in nature or daily life in Japan, and put in words the beauty of them in poems or traditional short ones, “Tanka” and “Haiku.”

For my project, “Take a Breath,” I have captured and put together the moments that took my breath away in my daily life, through the approach used in the Japanese poems. There is no way I can fully express in words what have moved me. Instead, I hope the images here would allow you to reawaken any feelings or emotions in your mind.